Lost in Time
by rDiana13
Summary: The Fire country has nearly been wiped out because of the war - there is only one thing left to do. Can they save their friends? Time-Travel!
1. A hard decision

**Hope you like this! I intend it to be longer. Yes, I know, the Prologue is quite short, I'm sorry... :D**

"Nara Shikamaru."

"Troublesome."

"Yamato."

"Yo!"

"Haruno Sakura."

"Shannaro!"

"Hatake Kakashi?"

No answer.

"Hatake Kakashi?"

Still no answer.

"Eh, he'll come eventually... Sai."

"Present."

The said brunette whipped a scroll out and laid it on the ground. He looked at the blond who had been calling out the names, and waited.

"Oh, yes. Start with the normal stuff. I, Naruto Uzumaki, Rokudaime, blah blah blah, and ask for Gaara to come in front of the Hokage tower immediately." Right that moment he felt a brush of sand go past him and start to build up into a person right behind him.

"No need for that." the redhead spoke, after clearing his throat.

Soon, they were all squeezed into the tiny amount of space the Hokage office had free - as you may have guessed, Naruto was always delaying paperwork way too long and it started to stack up. Naruto was squeezed between all of the others, in the middle. Gaara was exactly in front of him, Sakura and Yamato to his left, Sai and Shikamaru to his right. The blonde was looking at all of them with concern - an emotion you didn't see every day on his figure, and everyone - even Sai - had the same feeling painted on their faces.

"We have gone through six years of war." His voice was cracking, in his attempt of showing no emotion. "We are fighting to survive, each and every of us, and it's clear that if we don't do something _now_, one of The Five Great Shinobi Countries is going to be wiped out." Naruto stopped for a second, and then motioned to the pineapple-top, signing him to take the word. "Shikamaru."

"Hokage-sama," he bowed his head a little in respect, and then raised his eyes looking straight at the blond. He only stared back at his Chief Strategist. "Space-Time Alteration Technique is the only chance we've got left. However, supposing we have a modifiable one-timeline Universe, that implies that there are very few actions we can do to modify the past, without creating a paradox and, therefore, erasing the whole Universe."

By this point, the young Naruto would have been staring blankly at Shikamaru. Now, he was reanalyzing everything one more time by himself. "Shikamaru, my technique isn't nearly half complete. It's way too risky."

"I know. We have twenty-seven hours and forty-three minutes until the earliest time possible for another attack to be landed on Konoha. Since the preparation is tedious, I think you have a little more than twenty-three hours to complete it."

Naruto looked down. He had twenty-three hours, but he was using one thousand Shadow Clones in order to speed up the training process. That being taken in consideration...

"Twenty three thousand hours of practice should be enough." Everybody raised their eyes, to see the silver haired jounin looking down at them with a fake apologetic face. "Sorry, sorry, a dog snatched..."

"Cut it! We are dealing with an emergency here, you don't need your alarm clock to wake up!" Sakura and Naruto shouted at him.

Kakashi sat next to Naruto, with his legs tucked one under the other.

"Gaara, you have the same elemental affinity as Naruto. While he will be performing the main jutsu, you will maintain the anchors in time." Shikamaru took out a cigarette from his back pocket; when the war had started he picked up smoking again. He lit it and let it hang at the left side at his mouth. "We will divide again in teams. Team One. I, Shikamaru Nara, Naruto Uzumaki, Sai. Team Two. Kakashi Hatake, Sakura Haruno, Yamato, Gaara."

Everybody nodded, stood up, and left the room silently, towards the training grounds.

**The Space Time Alteration Technique will be called Jikuu Henshitsu no Jutsu (did I get it right? correct me if I don't, please). Hope you liked this!**


	2. Sage of the Six Paths

'_italics'_ for thoughts

"**bold" **for jutsus

"normal" for speech

"_**bold and italic"**_ for all summoned or tailed beasts.

"**Jikuu Henshitsu no Jutsu!"***

The blond's left foot hit the scroll that he had had laid on the ground, as he was making the hand seals. He had his chakra uniformly spread all over his body.

"**Jikuu Ankaa no Jutsu!"***

The redhead smashed his right foot on the scroll next to Naruto's, in the adjacent circle. In the meantime, everyone was channeling their chakra from one to the other in order to keep a link between them - Kakashi to Yamato, Yamato to Sakura, Sakura to Sai, Sai to Shikamaru, and Shikamaru to both Gaara and Naruto.

The next thing they remembered is black and daze.

"Hey, hey, is everybody okay?" the Rokudaime asked, looking with a slight frown at his colleagues who were scattered on the floor.

Gaara was the first one up after him. They had fallen a good two, three meters when they got teleported into the past, but Gaara didn't really sense the impact due to his sand always protecting him. "I'm fine." He rubbed the tattoo on his forehead.

"_**Naruto." **_a raspy, low voice spoke out. _**"We're going to mess things up. I'm not supposed to exist in this time."**_

"_We're in the time of the Sage of the Six Paths?"_

"_**Congratulations, you've got such good thinking skills," **_the Kyuubi laughed shortly.

Konoha's Orange Hokage looked around for a second, trying to see if there was anybody approaching. "For the moment, team One and team Two are not going to split up."

Shikamaru raised his eyes to Naruto, deducing that the jinchuuriki had talked with his tailed beast. He had to find out and think of a strategy to solve the problem as soon as he could.

"We are in the time of the Sage of the Six Paths. The tailed beasts do not exist yet, but we have the Juubi."

Shikamaru had his hands in that rectangular kind of shape he always makes when he concentrates, trying to think of what to do. "Ask the Kyuubi if there is any kind of immediate danger."

"No, there isn't, as long as Gaara can hold the Anchoring Technique. I will have to help him mold his chakra because he uses much more than he can mold at a time. But other than that, everything should be fine for the moment."

"Then, the only sensible thing we can do is find the Sage."

A slender figure appeared from the forest, without having made any sound. "I felt some... irregularities in this area." he explained, sitting down in the middle of the scattered shinobi. He looked at them as if nothing would disturb him, and studied their faces with some kind of interest. "I see we have quite an impressive Jinchuuriki here, being in total harmony with the tailed beast inside him." He appreciated shortly, looking at Naruto, as if he would expect to be told the situation. The blond stared blankly at the man for a second, before his head started to clear up.

"I am Naruto Uzumaki. Those are Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Saku-"

"I do not have the will to know you names. I only want to know why it is that you came back in time."

"Oh, yeah, about that..." Naruto explained in few words everything that he had learned about history - The Five Great Shinobi Countries, The Five Kage, The Tailed Beasts... What happened to Konoha, The Fire Country, and how they were now trying to make everything right. Surprisingly, the Sage lowered his head into a short bow, to Naruto, as a way to show respect. Naruto was puzzled, but made sure to remember to ask Shikamaru what was there that the Kage could respect about _him_.

"This Jikuu Henshitsu, you said it has two parts, right?"

The one to answer this question, though, was Shikamaru. "Yes. The first one is the Jutsu itself, that allows time travel and alteration, but it had to many risks, in case of usage, because it can cause loopholes and paradoxes. We had to find a way of keeping the present - or future, if you want - how it was when we left, in order not to modify ourselves, as well. Basically, the Anchor Jutsu isn't much of an anchor but it temporarily splits the time into two timelines, different one from the other."

"And when you let go of the initial timeline, you will no longer have people going back." The Sage countered.

"That is true, but that is also why we will make sure that, every time before we let go of the Anchor, we will make sure to send our future - or different-timeline - selves into the past, to do this again."

The Sage was a bit impressed - after all, five of them weren't even eighteen, one of them was reading porn (how could he, in such a situation?), and the only one who looked sane enough to him looked nearly dead because of sleep deprivation (even though the Sage didn't know that, Naruto snored loud enough to wake up an entire village; unfortunately, Yamato was the only one who didn't manage to find his solution to that).

He sighed and stood up.

"I have to show you something."

Thirty five minutes later, the Sage was holding a scroll in front of him.

"Rikudou Sennin*? What's this?"

The Sage looked at Naruto, waiting for him to look at it. The blond unfolded it, with a small frown. Then, he tucked it inside his Hokage robe, without saying a word. Shikamaru was going to ask about it later, but for the moment it didn't matter. He had to keep the roll of paper safe and away from unwanted eyes - not that there were many, in those times where shinobi were rarely seen, but better to be safe than sorry.

**Jikuu Henshitsu no Jutsu - Space-Time Alteration Technique**

**Jikuu Ankaa no Jutsu - Space-Time Anchor Technique**

Rikudou Sennin - Sage of the Six Paths


	3. Maybe ramen wasn't a good idea

Naruto couldn't see anything yet, but he could make out the voices of Sakura and Kakashi.

The orange Hokage of Konoha heard a loud thud, and it took him several seconds - to be read as, "nearly a decade" to realize that it was his head hitting the ground. The blond groaned and sat up, rubbing the hurt spot beneath his spiky hair. Sakura looked at him. She seemingly managed to land perfectly - like a cat, always feet forward! She was healing a big crack in Sai's head, who had been smart enough to land head forward, even worse than Naruto.

"Let's go and eat some ramen!"

"Naruto, you can't go around through time and . . ." (Shikamaru)

"Uh, guys, where did Naruto go?" (Sai)

"Shannaro! Naruto, come back here!" (Sakura)

"Yo! You don't even know when you are!" (Kakashi)

"Kakashi-senpai is right! Come back here this second!" (Yamato)

"This just has to be troublesome, doesn't it?" (Shikamaru)

"My sand doesn't even want to hear about it." (Gaara)

"Guys, guys, calm down." (Kakashi)

"Idiot." (Sai)

It took three long hours to find the Rokudaime, and by the time they saw him, he was chased by the ANBU, the Shodaime, a bunch of angry girls, someone who looked a damn lot like Teuchi, someone who looked like Teuchi's daughter, the four year old version of Tsunade - fact that hinted them that the shodaime was very close to the end of his career - dragging a scowling Jiraiya by the hand. The kid version of the white haired pervert sennin was trying to figure things out, without any succes. Even Orochimaru was there, Tsunade dragging him along with her other hand. Or rather than dragging them she was cleaning the dust off the ground with their butts, but this was a whole other story. The blond boy didn't seem to show any exhaustion signs yet, but to his friends' trained eyes, it was obvious that he was tired. Hell, having the three legendary sennins - even as kids - hunt you down, the grandfather of one, a bunch of the first ANBU members _**and**_ angry girls . . . no, no, it was not one's idea of fun. Naruto seemed to enjoy it, though. He really wanted to turn his head around and yell at the blonde girl, "_**Hey, Tsunade-baabaa, what's with the rush?**_" But he definitely could not. It would disturb time quite much. And he even saw old man Sandaime, but he was barely fifteen at that time. He looked a lot like Asuma - calm and doesn't interfere when there is no need to.

Naruto took a quick turn right and stopped to breathe for a second, when he felt a small hand clasp on his orange pants (he still wore his favorite color) and drag him in a tiny room. The same small hand locked the door and turned on a light.

"Tsunade-chan, it's not a woman," the white-haired kid sighed, and started looking at the blond.

_I need to make them cooperate with me. The only way I can do this is by . . ._ He sighed. _But Ero-sennin is only five now! _Naruto was surrounded by a puff, using his Sexy Jutsu - the clothed version, of course. The kid did something between a smirk and a grin. The blonde girl hit him in the head, which whipped around a little bit.

And then there was Orochimaru. He looked strange in a somewhat normal attire, without his evil smirk. He actually did look like a kid, something Naruto had never expected him to, even at the age of five._ I can't change things back this early. I might never get born, or get the kyuubi if I do. I might never meet Sakura-chan, and teme . . . No matter how much I want to. _Naruto sighed at his own uselessness. But out of the four possibilities he had(one of them being not doing anything) he decided to ruffle Orochimaru's hair slightly.

The brunette scowled, but didn't move down from the box he was sitting on.

Tsunade hopped in front of Naruto. "Oji-chan, why is everyone following you around?"

So she didn't know, after all?

"Oji-chan, why do you have Ojii-chan's necklace?"

The blonde caught the medallion in her hand and pulled it down, along with Naruto's head.

"Hey, you, the white haired kid." What a brilliant plan of getting out of this, making Jiraiya pay for his mistakes. Eh, he'll remember to make it up to his old mentor some day.

Jiraiya was getting all giddy at the thought of seeing a woman naked without having to peek through the windows at the bathrooms. "Can you undress?"

And there came a smack on the back of his head from the blonde. "Jiraiya!"

And here came the opportunity to escape the room, taking Orochimaru along. A bit of compassion wouldn't hurt, would it? Maybe he would be a better person, in the future.

"They're always like that." complained he. "Especially Tsunade. She's such an idiot, she nearly cracked my head opened several times."

_Typical Tsunade,_ Naruto thought, but kept it to himself. "They're going to be like that for a long, long time. But she will be sad if he dies." Naruto ruffled the brunette's hair once again. He seemed to be much better when he was young. "And if you will be more friendly with everyone, she'll care for you, too."

Orochimaru frowned, raising his eyes to Naruto for the first time that day, and looking confused for the first time in his whole life. "People are not that friendly to me."

"Kiddo, let me tell you something."

The blond sat down next to a tree trunk and patted the ground next to me. "It's not about them, it's about you. If you struggle, you will have friends. Power is vain if you don't have what to protect with it." A genuine smile - weak, but still a smile - made its way on Orochimaru's lips.

He nodded shortly.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Konoha, everyone split up to search for Naruto. It turned out, he was nowhere to be found. And everyone was getting worried.

Naruto had sat and talked with Orochimaru for nearly two hours, trying to get him to open up a little, when he realized that it was already quite dark.

"I've got to go. Just make sure Tsunade doesn't kill Jiraiya when they're older. He'll try to touch her boobs all the time."

Orochimaru was still looking a little confused. Usually, no one wanted to talk to him. Why did this blond try so hard? He shook it off and stood up.

"Hey, Tsunade! Jiraiya! Wait up!"

"Orochimaru? What's with you here?" frowned the blonde, trying to ignore Jiraiya who was attempting - the third time, that week - trying to ask her out. The silveret got a punch in the head but he still smiled at the blonde.

"So?"

"No."

"Please, Tsunade-chaaaan?"

"No."

"But..."

"I said no! Do you want to keep your balls or not?"

The white haired boy sighed, turned around, and started walking away. He felt a cold hand poke him in the shoulder.

"Hey, Jiraiya?"

"Hm?" His voice was maybe a bit warmer than usual - the brunet boy rarely tried to be nice to anyone.

"Do you want some ramen?"

His future teammate's mind went blank, and in the middle of everything, there was a big, full, tasty, spicy, delicious, bowl of ramen. "RAMEEEEEN!"

"Hey... could you... you know... stop... crushing me?" the brunet boy managed to choke out through shaky breaths caused by Jiraiya's bear hug.

"Oh, right."

The boy pulled back and smiled.

"Hey guys!"

Gaara's, Shikamaru's... pretty much, everyone's head, snapped around to look at a grinning Naruto.

"Where have you been, idiot?"

"Fixing some stuff up!"

"Oh no. No. No-no-no-no. Tell me you didn't. Tell me it's not what I think. Please tell you haven't..."

"I talked to Orochimaru!" grinned Naruto.

Five minutes later, Sakura had beaten him up so badly that he was nearly dead. Shikamaru was muttering "_Everything is so troublesome._" once every five seconds, Gaara's sand started going in every direction possible from the stress, Kakashi started fumbling with the knot of his mask - this was one of the most worrying things, since the man really, really didn't want it to slip off -, Yamato was pacing nervously back and forth, and Sai stopped drawing quite abruptly, looking up to everyone, realizing that something was definitely bad.

"Uzumaki Naruto! You are such an idiot!"

"Sakura-chan... it hurts... stop... stop tearing my back in two... Sakura-chan pleaaaase..." cried the Rokudaime. Obviously he could get out of there but most probably it would involve hurting Sakura a little, and he didn't want to. The rosette finally gave up, letting him free of her stomping over his back.

"Th-thanks, Sakura-chaaaan..."

**Author's Notes.**

**So, this the second chapter. Yaaay. I hope you like it, even if it's kind of dull and ends abruptly.**


End file.
